The European Union should embark on a stabilization mission in the embattled south Caucasus region, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Sunday.
“Poland is considering taking part in the undertaking,” Sikorski was quoted by Polish news agency PAP as saying.
“The European Union is prepared to play a role in stabilizing this region on condition that the parties involved in the conflict cool down their emotions and end this escalating conflict,” Sikorski said.
For the time being the evacuation of Poles from the region is under way and will soon be completed, according to the minister.
Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer told PAP EU foreign ministers are to meet on Georgia very soon, within a week at the latest. Consultations at different levels are on, he added.
According to an EU source, European Union foreign ministers will hold a crisis meeting to discuss the bloc’s response to the conflict “on Wednesday in Brussels.”
South Ossetia, along with another breakaway republic Abkhazia, broke away from Georgia in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But their self-proclaimed independence has not been internationally recognized.
Moscow sent troops as peacekeepers in support of the enclave, where many of its 70,000 residents have been granted Russian passports.